THE PICTURE OF THE MONKS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18457, 11 August 1925, Page 12

THE PICTURE OF THE MONKS.

TO TEB ZBTTOB OF "THE PKESS."

gjr I have a copy of the picture you wish to know about. In the foreground seven monks are fishing, and one has just got a bite. The rest are eagerlv matching to see the fish. The painter is "Waiter Dendy Sadler, and thi3 pteture, which is called "Thursday," hangs in the Tate Gallery, London. —Yours, etc, FREDERICK A. BULL. Waddington, August Bth. TO THB ZDITOB 0» "THE PMSS." Sir—For the information of your correspondent, "Query," I append the following note by Arthur Fish, published in 1911 (slightly abridged):— "Humour in art requires deft treatment. Mr W. Dendy Sadler has, however, proved that humour, good natured, refined, laughter-provoking, can be introduced into pictures entirely successfully. Not that humour is the principal feature of his work; neither is it the main motif of the picture. In 'Thursday,' for instance, there is nothing humorous in the subject, as a subject—a party of monks preparing for the 'fast' table of Friday. But the characterisation of the monks is brimful of quiet, suggestive humour." Painted in 1880, and exhibited at the Eoyal Academy in that year, "Thursday" was the first of a series of "monk" pictures painted by Mr Sadler, and struck such an unusual note of success that he was led to follow with the" others —"Friday," "It's Always the Largest Fish that's Lost," "Habet," etc. "Thursday" was one of the first pictures purchased by Sir Henry Tate in the formation of the collection which he afterwards presented to the nation. Other pictures by Mr Sadler are "Darby and Joan," '"The Widow's Birthday," "Old and Crusted." "Query" may remember having seen a picture called "To-mor-row Will be Friday" by, I think, Lawson Wood, showing a party of monks standing with fishing rods in the snow by a frozen stream. I have always thought it to be a parody of "Thursday." If so, the faces may be caricatures of those of Sadler's monks.— Yours, etc., J.H.